Wednesday, 13 May 2015

I personally appreciate three traits
that lead to an amazing success – passion, excellence and commitment. Most
leaders possess these three traits that make them stand out from others. Let us look at three inspiring leaders who
emphasized passion, excellence and commitment.

Passion

When you look at Steve Jobs, he was
noted for his passion towards technology. Although many other opportunities
knocked at his doors, he never gave up his passion towards technology which
made him as a legendary innovation leader globally. He co-founded Apple Computers
in a garage and strove hard throughout his life. He took Apple to great
heights. He was fired by the company due to the differences. Steve Jobs did not
lose his hope, and did not give up his passion. He followed his heart, started
his company NeXT and did well. When the Apple was close to bankruptcy, Steve
Jobs was requested by the company to join. He joined the Apple and brought out many
innovations and took the company to great heights globally. Steve Jobs said,
“Winners don’t quit because they are passionate about their work. If you are
not passionate, you will quit because when things become difficult our will say
this is not my kind of stuff.”Apple is
a great turnaround story under the leadership of Steve Jobs. He made a
difference in the lives of people. Hence, you must follow your heart to make it
big in your life.

Excellence

Whatever the area of interest you are
into, you must strive for excellence. If you don’t emphasize excellence, you
will be left out in the race. Since the world is highly competitive, it is
essential to adapt, update and excel in your area of interest. If you work hard sincerely and consistently in
your area of interest for 10,000 hours, you will become a successful
professional and leader. If you continue working hard further in the same area,
you will be able to brand as an expert globally. Abraham Lincoln’s father was a cobbler.Although Lincoln had differences with his
father he always respected his father’s profession. When an opposition leader
in Senate commented upon Lincoln taking over as President being as the son of a
cobbler, Lincoln took it in his stride and silenced his critic by asserting
that he was proud of his father who excelled in his work as a great
cobbler.Hence, we must always take
pride in what we are doing.There is
nothing like good or bad profession.All
professions are good when people work with excellence. Hence, emphasize
excellence to remain relevant and stay ahead of times and technologies.

Commitment

You must stand by your commitment, if
you want to earn trust and confidence from others. Don’t go by short-term
temptations. Think of long-term interests. Keep people before profit. Marshall
Goldsmith shares his admiration for Frances Hesselbein and her commitment in
his award-winning book Triggers: Creating
Behavior That Lasts - Becoming the Person You Want to Be as follows:A few years ago, Frances got an invitation to
the White House. The White House date conflicted with her commitment to speak
to a small nonprofit group in Denver. To most people this wouldn’t be a
conundrum: A meeting with the president
of the United States or an unpaid speech in Denver? We call the folks in
Denver, explain the situation, offer to reschedule or promise to come back the
next year. After all, it’s a pro bono. We’re doing the folks in Denver a favor.
They’ll understand. Frances went the
other way. She told the White House she wouldn’t be attending. “I have a
commitment,” she said. “They’re expecting me.” (The real kicker for Marshall
Goldsmith, the cherry on top of this integrity sundae: Frances never told the
Denver group about the White House invitation.)

To conclude, learn lessons from these inspiring
leaders and acquire three great traits – passion, excellence and commitment to stand
out and grow as a great leader.

“Excellence is an art won by training
and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence,
but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we
repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” -Aristotle

This is a nonprofit blog to share
Professor M.S.Rao’s passion and vision to build one million students as global
leaders by 2030. Please don't cut articles from my blog and redistribute by
email or post to the web. The use of this material is free provided copyright
is acknowledged and reference or link is made to the Blog http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.in.This material may not be sold, or published
in any form, or used in the provision of business services to a third party
without permission.

Mother's Day falls on different days
depending on the countries where it is celebrated. For India, it falls on the
second Sunday in May. India celebrates Mother’s Day on May 10, 2015. Here is my
message on the eve of Mother’s Day:

We take many people for granted in our
daily lives. We take our relations for granted. We don’t respect the people
around us. We often look for people outside and search for stones. In fact, we search
for stones by leaving gems at home. It is the attitude of most people in
today’s world. We don’t respect our
parents but we respect people who are outside. We don’t take parents as our
inspiration. But we take outside people as our inspiration. Probably another’s
pasture always looks greener. Husbands don’t respect their wives and wives
don’t respect their husbands but they often search for others outside. How
shameful it is? What kind of people we are! We must introspect and respect the people
around us whether they are mothers, fathers or teachers.

Indian culture respects mothers first,
fathers second and teachers third. It is the mother who brings life into this
world. Whether we have brothers or sisters or friends or not but we all have
our mothers. Let us love her and admire her contribution to family and spend
time with her. Mother’s love is altruistic and invaluable. It is a pride to
become a mother. There are certain things that are God-gifted that include being
born as a woman. Only women can conceive and carry forward civilization. It is
a great feeling to be born as a woman. It is an honor to be born as a woman. On
the eve of Mother’s Day, let us take a pledge to respect women and let us all
love our mothers. Without our mothers we wouldn’t have been into this world.

Eight
Lies of a Mother – A Heart Touching Story

Here is an inspiring story ‘eight lies
of a mother’ adapted from internet:

1) This story begins when I was a
child: I was born poor. Often we hadn't enough to eat. Whenever we had some
food, Mother often gave me her portion of rice. While she was transferring her
rice into my bowl, she would say ..

"Eat
this rice, son! I'm not hungry."

2) As I grew, Mother gave up her spare
time to fish in a river near our house; she hoped that from the fish she
caught, she could give me a little bit more nutritious food for my growth. Once
she had caught just two fish, she would make fish soup. While I was eating the
soup, mother would sit beside me and eat what was still left on the bone of the
fish I had eaten. My heart was touched when I saw it. Once I gave the other
fish to her on my chopstick but she immediately refused it and said,

"Eat
this fish, son! I don't really like fish."

3) Then, in order to fund my
education, Mother went to a Match Factory to bring home some used matchboxes
which she filled with fresh matchsticks. This helped her get some money to
cover our needs. One wintry night I awoke to find Mother filling the matchboxes
by candlelight. So I said, "Mother, go to sleep; it's late: you can
continue working tomorrow morning." Mother smiled and said

"Go
to sleep, son! I'm not tired"

4) When I had to sit my Final
Examination, Mother accompanied me. After dawn, Mother waited for me for hours
in the heat of the sun. When the bell rang, I ran to meet her. Mother embraced
me and poured me a glass of tea that she had prepared in a thermos. The tea was
not as strong as my Mother's love, Seeing Mother covered with perspiration, I
at once gave her my glass and asked her to drink too. Mother said ..

"Drink,
son! I'm not thirsty!"

5) After Father's death, Mother had to
play the role of a single parent. She held on to her former job; she had to
fund our needs alone. Our family's life was more complicated. We suffered from
starvation. Seeing our family's condition worsening, my kind Uncle who lived
near my house came to help us solve our problems big and small. Our other
neighbors saw that we were poverty stricken so they often advised my mother to
marry again. But Mother refused to remarry saying..

"I
don't need love!"

6) After I had finished my studies and
gotten a job, it was time for my old Mother to retire but she carried on going
to the market every morning just to sell a few vegetables. I kept sending her
money but she was steadfast and even sent the money back to me. She said,

"I
have enough money!"

7) I continued my part-time studies
for my Master's Degree. Funded by the American Corporation for which I worked,
I succeeded in my studies. With a big jump in my salary, I decided to bring
Mother to enjoy life in America but Mother didn't want to bother her son; she
said to me ..

"I'm
not used to high living!"

8) In her dotage, Mother was attacked
by cancer and had to be hospitalized. Now living far across the ocean, I went
home to visit Mother who was bedridden after an operation. Mother tried to
smile but I was heartbroken because she was so thin and feeble but Mother said,

"Don't
cry, son! I'm not in pain!"

Telling me this, her eighth lie, she
died ..

YES, MOTHER WAS AN ANGEL!

M - O - T - H - E - R

"M" is for the Million
things she gave me

"O" means Only that she's
growing old

"T" is for the Tears she
shed to save me

"H" is for her Heart of gold

"E" is for her Eyes with
love-light shining in them

"R" means Right, and right
she'll always be, Put them all together, they spell "MOTHER" a word
that means the world to me.

For those of you who are lucky to be
still blessed with your Mom's presence on Earth, this story is beautiful. For
those who aren't so blessed, this is even more beautiful.

This is a nonprofit blog to share
Professor M.S.Rao’s passion and vision to build one million students as global
leaders by 2030. Please don't cut articles from my blog and redistribute by
email or post to the web. The use of this material is free provided copyright
is acknowledged and reference or link is made to the Blog http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.in.This material may not be sold, or published
in any form, or used in the provision of business services to a third party
without permission.

Monday, 4 May 2015

“The first step to turn fear into
power is to accept full responsibility for your choices, behavior, and the
reality of what you now have in your life. The second step is to have the
courage to acknowledge and examine your fears.” – James Mapes

Currently engineering students are
writing their examinations in India. They have lots of apprehensions about exams
which is known as ‘exam fever’ in India. They find it challenging overcome it.
Many students don’t know how to beat their anxiety before and during the exams.
The kind of exam system in India is
different which brings lots of pressure to students in India. Some of the students don’t prepare regularly
due to lack of guidance and focus. At times, they don’t know how to manage
their time. Above all, there is a parental
pressure to perform well. Here are certain tools and techniques students must
adopt to avoid anxiety and apprehensions before and during exams.

Tools
and Techniques while Writing Examinations:

Read all questions
carefully.Attempt the question
which you know the best. Remember the slogan, ‘First impression is the
best impression’. When the evaluators see the right response to the right
question, they tend to carry the same impression on the rest of the answers.
Allocate reasonable amount of time for each question and respond
accordingly. Don’t take too much time for one or two questions as you
might not find time to attempt the rest of the questions.

Respond to all questions, if
possible. If you don’t know the answer for a specific question, recall
from your memory when the educator taught you in the classroom and then
write. You will score some marks for having written something about the
question.

Don’t leave the exam hall early
just because you completed responding to all questions before the
stipulated time. Read the answers again. If possible, add value to the
existing answers to present in a better way.

If you still find time, respond
to extra questions. For instance, you are asked to attempt five questions out
of eight questions. If you have already attempted five questions and you
still have time, then attempt the sixth question as well. Evaluators take
the best of the answers that help you score high finally.

Write the question number clearly
on the left side of the margin on the answer sheet as it helps the
evaluators understand the question and answer easily. It makes things
easier for evaluators to identify the right answer for the right question,
and to carry forward the marks further for final total.

Before the day of exam take proper
rest, enjoy food, and drink lots of water to keep you hydrated and energized. To
conclude, it is ideal to listen to lectures in the classroom and take the
notes.Maintain separate notebook for
each subject. Prepare regularly instead of preparing when exams are round the
corner. Above all, emphasize on acquisition of knowledge rather than on scores
and grades.Although scores and grades
matter a lot, ultimately what knowledge you have taken away from educational institutions
counts more than so called paper degrees. Paper degrees provide you entry into workplace,
and it is the knowledge that you gained from educational institutions will help
you survive and succeed in the workplace.

Good luck!

"It is by teaching that we teach
ourselves, by relating that we observe, by affirming that we examine, by
showing that we look, by writing that we think, by pumping that we draw water
into the well." - Henri-Frederic Amiel, Swiss philosopher, poet.

This is a nonprofit blog to share
Professor M.S.Rao’s passion and vision to build one million students as global
leaders by 2030. Please don't cut articles from my blog and redistribute by
email or post to the web. The use of this material is free provided copyright
is acknowledged and reference or link is made to the Blog http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.in.This material may not be sold, or published
in any form, or used in the provision of business services to a third party
without permission.